Handle-attaching means



Feb. 13, 1923.

1,445,470. H. BALE.

HANDLE ATTACHING MEANS. FILED MAY 16, 1922.

Patented Feb. 13, 1923,

H OE A CE BALE, OF SPRINGFIELD, ILTJTNOIS.

" meant HANDLE-ATTACIEING MEANS.

Application filed. May 16,

To all who-m it may concern.

Be it known that HORACE BALE, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Springfield, in the county of Sangamon and State of Illinois, has invented new and useful Improvements in Handle-Attaching Means, of which the following is a specification.

The object of the invention is to provide a simple and efficient tool handle attaching means of a type adaptable for keying or securing dowels and like means of attachment or connection bet-ween sections or elements of a frame or composite structure such as furniture'and the like, and which is designed specifically as a means of spreading a tool handle or dowel to snugly fit a socket in which it is located as a means of preventing separation of the connected parts or elements; and with this object in view the invention consists in a construction and corn bination of parts of which a preferred embodiment is shown in the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is a side View partly broken away of a tool head and handle wherein the latter is fitted with a spreading device constructed in accordance with the invention.

Figure 2 is a view of a modification adapted for spreading the handle or dowel in two directions.

Figures 3, L and 5 are detail views respectively of the key, the main wedge and one of the supplemental wedges.

The device consists essentially of a key which in the form illustrated in Figure 1 is indicated at 10, constructed of a flat strip or band of preferably resilient or spring metal in the general form of a split key to provide substantially parallel separable arms 11 connected by an enlarged eye or ring 12, which is adapted to be seated in a slot 13 in the end of the tool handle represented at 14, or similarly in a dowel to be secured in a socket provided for its reception and corresponding in this illustration with. the socket or eye 14 in the tool head 15. The slot 13 is counterbored or enlarged at its inner end as shown at 16 for the reception of the eye or ring 12 at the inner end of the key so as to be insertable laterally into the slot and prevent longitudinal displacement of the key from the slot. Engaged with the key by insert-ion between the arms 11 thereof is a wedge 17, hereinafter referred to as the main wedge,

1922. Serial No. 561,435.

designed to spread the arms and therefore the end of the handle or dowel so as to cause the latter to fit snugly in the socket or eye 1-1 to insure the connection between the arts.

T e inner surfaces of the arms 11 of the key are provided with serrations 18 of the ratchet tooth type facilitating the inward movement of the wedge while presenting abrupt shoulders to prevent the outward or reverse movement thereof, and when the wedge, as preferred, is constructed of metal, it is provided at its opposite side surfaces as shown in Figure 4L with corresponding serrations for engagement with those of the key arms, so as to provide for a positive interlock of the wedge with the key.

When it is desired to provide for a transverse spreading of the handle or dowel, or a spreading thereof in a direction perpendicular to that effected by the key and main wedge above described, supplemental wedges 19, shown in Figure 2, are employed to be driven into the handle or dowel 20 at opposite sides of the plane of the key 10 the said supplemental wedges being tapered in width, so that the inclined outer edges 19 thereof serve to impel the same toward the plane of the key, and the inner edges of the supplemental wedges are serrated as inclicated at 21 for engagement with opposed and interlocking serrations 22 formed on the outer sides of the arms 11 of the key,

The interlocking serrations provided respectively on the supplemental wedges and the exterior surfaces of the arms of the key serve to prevent displacement of said wedges in the same manner that the interlocking engagement of the main wedge with the inner surfaces of the arms of the key act regarding the wedge 17, and the key thereby serves as the anchoring means for both main and supplemental wedges and is itself held against longitudinal displacement by the enlargement formed at the closed end of the loop represented thereby, it being understood that the key is seated in the slot of the handle or dowel prior to the insertion of the latter in the socket designed for its reception.

Having described the invention, what is claimed as new and useful is 1. A locking device of the type indicated having a split or looped key provided with means for anchoring the same against longitudinal displacement and a wedge interposed between the arms of the key and having an interlocking engagement therewith, and perpendicularly disposed supplemental wedges arranged exteriorly of and in contaot with the arms of said key and having interlocking engagement therewith, said supplemental keys being tapered in width with their outer edges inclined to impel the same toward the plane of the key.

2. A locking device of the type indicated having a split or looped key provided with means for anchoring the same against longitudinal displacement means positively engaged with the arms to dispose them in divergent relation and perpendicularly disposed supplemental wedges arranged exterio-rly 0i and in'eontaot with the arms of the said key and having interlocking engagement therewith, said supplemental keys being tapered in width with their outer edges inclined to impel the same toward the plane of the key.

In testimony whereof he affixes his signature.

HORACE BALE. 

